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Downtown Parking Strategy and Implementation Plan—Public Comments ATTACHMENT 3 LAW OFFICE PETER MACDONALD PLEASANTON,CALIFORNIA 94566-7371 t4macdonaldl aw.net March 7,2017 Pleasanton Planning Commission c/o Department of Community Development City of Pleasanton 200 Old Bernal Avenue PO Box 520 Pleasanton, CA 94566 Subject: Item 6, March 8 Agenda: Downtown Parking Strategy Honorable Chair Ritter and Members of the Commission, The Parking Strategy that has been recommended to Planning Commission needs improvement. I compliment the Planning Staff for overseeing the thorough Parking Study prepared by Fehr and Peers and managing an inclusive process in exposing the Parking Study to the community. Unfortunately, more planning process does not always lead to better planning results. The goal driving my comments is the desire to see a more vital downtown Pleasanton, led by increased side street development, more hours with businesses open, more building height where compatible, and more diverse and successful businesses, leading to more customers and people downtown. Parking is simply a tool to support that increased intensity and vitality(i.e. parking is infrastructure). The Recommended Parking Strategy It should be noted that only 2 of the 10 parking strategies recommended involve the creation of additional public parking spaces in downtown Pleasanton. Even then, it is only a plan to maybe plan for more public parking spaces,with no commitment to build public parking spaces. The other 8 recommended strategies amount to the micromanagement of scarce parking. If the supply of parking is adequate, (e.g. parking spaces available within two blocks of destinations)then simply keeping the aggregate supply of parking expanding in proportion to aggregate parking demand will allow continuing increases in building space and vitality. Provided to Planning Commission for March 8, 2017 Meeting and City Council for April 18,2017 Meeting 7